Schedule Project Plan

Explanation

The project schedule is established when the planned dates, i.e. Early Start and Early Finish dates, have been determined for all project activities. The dates can be set either manually or through a scheduling calculation.

To manually establish the project schedule, values for early dates and total work days are directly entered for each activity. It is also possible to update early start dates, early finish dates and/or total work days by dragging or moving activity bars in the Gantt chart.

Alternatively, a scheduling calculation can be performed in the IFS/Project Gantt to determine the activity start and finish dates. Logical dependencies are created between activities to form an activity network, which is used as input into a scheduling calculation. Scheduling will result in updated activity start and finish dates, and critical activities, i.e. activities with Total Float less than or equal to zero, will be indicated.

Schedule Button in the Gantt header offers two ways to perform the schedule calculation.

Schedule with Start Date: Enter a start date to schedule activities to begin on the project’s start date and calculates the project’s finish date based on the last activity to finish.

Schedule with Finish Date: Enter a project finish date to calculate the project’s start date. Use this method to determine when a project must start so that it finishes on a specific required date entered.

The scheduling calculation takes the following into account:

• The project calendar (working and non-working days)
• The project start date or if none, the earliest activity early start date
• The total work days value for each activity, together with the Hours per Work Day value for the project
• The project schedule network consisting of activity dependencies (predecessor, successor, dependency type and lag) including the activity dependencies from other projects.
• Activity constraints
• Actual start and finish dates

Scheduling considers all the projects that are populated in Gantt for calculation. Schedule date (start/finish) provided are taken to schedule calculation. The scheduling calculation is done to the minute. The selected timescale in the Gantt does not affect the scheduling calculation but is used for display purposes only.

Activity network diagram in Gantt is visualized based on early dates.

In Aurena, to enhance analysis capabilities Project Scheduler offers; A summary of the changes to the activities as a result of the calculation, Scheduling Log to present warnings and information messages which would be a result of the calculated schedule, Additional constraint types to give the project planner more scheduling flexibility and Multi Projects Scheduling to schedule multiple projects simultaneously.

Prerequisites

• Activities must exist.
• For scheduling in the Gantt, the user must have access to the entire project.

System Effects

• When activity early start and finish dates are updated, either manually or through scheduling, the Gantt chart is updated.
• If activity bars in the Gantt chart are dragged or moved, the corresponding activity early start and finish dates are updated.
• Any changes in the Activity List area is updated in Gantt Chat area upon save.
• If a scheduling calculation is performed, the following values are updated:
  • The activity early start and early finish dates.
  • The activity late start and late finish dates.
  • The free and total float for each activity.
  • The project planned start date.
  • The project planned finish date.
• Changing activity early start and finish dates, either manually or through scheduling, can affect objects that may be connected to the activity, for example:
  • The required date for a miscellaneous demand or a connected project delivery item is based on the activity early finish date.
  • Project exceptions may be created.
  • The period to which resources are assigned follows the activity early start and early finish dates.
  • Employee allocations with specific Date From and Date To and that are not fixed, follow the activity early start and finish dates. Fixed allocations will not be moved. Employee allocations without specific Date From and Date To follow the activity early start and early finish dates as allocation dates.

Window

Gantt
Project Navigator
Activity

Related Window Descriptions

Gantt
Project Navigator
Project Navigator/Planning
Activity/Planning

Procedure

To manually update activity early start dates, early finish dates and/or total work days:

1. In windows with activity information, change the value of the early start date or the early finish date, alternatively the number of work days. Save the changes.
2. In the Gantt Header, select the option Pointer Mode. Change the length of the activity bar by dragging the ends of the bars or drag the entire bar to another date. Save the changes.
3. Alternatively, select Activity List check box in Gantt Settings panel and update details in the Gantt Activity List area.

To create a project network:

1. In the Gantt Settings panel, select the Dependencies check box.
2. Select the Create Dependencies Mode in the Gantt Header. Note the cursuor icon change to a pen like. Now you can draw dependencies between activities directly in the Gantt.
3. Alternatively double clicking on Gantt Chart area brings you to the Create Dependency Mode as well.
4. Alternatively select two activities and press Ctrl+D or click Link button that pops up to create a Finish-to-Start dependency.
5. Drag the pointer from one (predecessor) activity to another (successor) activity to create a Finish-to-Start dependency. Save the changes.
6. To view or update the dependency information point to a dependency, right-click and select the Dependency Details menu option. In the Dependency Details dialog, it is possible to change the dependency type, add a value for lag, or delete the dependency.
   
   In the Project Navigator or Activity windows:
7. Dependencies information can also be added, updated or deleted in the Planning/Predecessors or Planning/Successors tabs.
8. Information about constraints can be added in the Planning/Constraints tab. To visualize the constraints in Gantt Chart, check the Constraints check box in Gantt Settings panel.

To schedule a project:

1. In the Project Gantt window, query for the project that you wish to schedule.
2. Click the Schedule button in the Gantt header. 
3. In the Schedule Date in the Gantt Settings area, enter either Start Date or the End Date for the project.
4. The results of the scheduling calculation can be previewed in the Project Gantt window.
5. Save the changes to commit the results of the scheduling calculation.

Note: Before the scheduling starts the data is automatically reloaded into the Gantt to ensure that all data is up to date.
Note: After moving an activity, manually or through scheduling, some sub project summary bars are updated only after the changes are saved and the project is reloaded.